What to do when you think a poster is full of it...

We have an interesting ongoing situation here where a very young poster continually mentions all the amazing cards he has very recently acquired. Others have posted indications that there is no way that this can be true, and that he has been "outed" elsewhere, plus mentioning older posts here that seem to contradict his story. While we are all still occasionally surprised by things that sometime happen in the world of credit, a few things do strain credulity. Yes, odd things do happen, but...

This is causing an enormous headache for the moderators. Believe it or not, misrepresentation is not a violation of the forums TOS, whereas personal attacks (perhaps by members exasperated beyond endurance) are. So we don't edit posts that appear to be fairy tales, but we do edit posts that involve flaming.

After a lot of discussion that has gone on for a long time, the moderators have decided to back off intervening on these particular threads, EXCEPT when there is a clear violation of the TOS. So "Yeah, right, now pull the other one" is perfectly acceptable (even though not necessarily friendly, supportive, etc.), but "You're a flaming liar and need to get out of your mama's basement" is not.

Meanwhile, if these posts are driving you nuts, all we can suggest is the favorite saying of second-grade teachers everywhere: "Ignore inappropriate behavior." If you don't believe what he posts, either don't read any of the threads, or post just once something on the order of "rolls eyes" and move along.

Thanks for your understanding in this rather perplexing situation. --hauling

Re: What to do when you think a poster is full of it...

Oh, and by the way, there have apparently been some suggestions made that certain posters have "protection" from some mod or another, who edits opposing posts. This is completely untrue. Please note what I wrote above about how some things aren't violations of the TOS, no matter how annoying they might be, but others are, and those others have to go.

On a personal note, I completely understand that all the members don't know what goes on among moderators (there are times that we barely know ourselves), but I find it very offensive that some believe that we play favorites and selectively work in a way that supposedly benefits these members. The posts that get edited or completely removed are the ones that are violations of the TOS, or that have taken a thread so far downhill or so completely off-track that they need to be dealt with.

We're human, and we each have posters that we enjoy more than others, but we have all had to occasionally edit or remove posts by members that we like while holding our noses and leaving up posts by others.

Re: What to do when you think a poster is full of it...

Oh, and by the way, there have apparently been some suggestions made that certain posters have "protection" from some mod or another, who edits opposing posts. This is completely untrue. Please note what I wrote above about how some things aren't violations of the TOS, no matter how annoying they might be, but others are, and those others have to go.

On a personal note, I completely understand that all the members don't know what goes on among moderators (there are times that we barely know ourselves), but I find it very offensive that some believe that we play favorites and selectively work in a way that supposedly benefits these members. The posts that get edited or completely removed are the ones that are violations of the TOS, or that have taken a thread so far downhill or so completely off-track that they need to be dealt with.

We're human, and we each have posters that we enjoy more than others, but we have all had to occasionally edit or remove posts by members that we like while holding our noses and leaving up posts by others.

This was suggested to me in a PM recently and I also am offended. There is no, I repeat No deleting of posts, or editing of posts, etc. by any mod that is not seen by every other mod and every administrator. There are no secrets believe me. There are times I wish I could hide some of my mistakes but they are there for all the mods (and admins) to see.

All of us would have to conspire to "help" or "insulate" any particular poster and that doesn't happen. If the member who PM'ed me that accusation can deliver some proof I'd be glad to see it.

I believe the forums have changed over the last year or so. We have a much younger crowd here, one that is used to other forums where this sort of thing (Lots of posting about getting wasted, flamewars, generally pointless posts) is the norm. It has pretty much worn me and the other mods out. --that sounds like a slam at younger posters, and that came out wrong. But these are posters for whom these are NOT the first forums, and they're bringing the style of other forums here, and they're not getting or caring that that's not how we roll.

Without naming names there are several prime examples of this behavior. Posters who think they are the guardians of all truth and who call out other members, but in fact, they have been in plenty of trouble for the same sort of thing. They won't accept that their style of challenging isn't allowed here, because as anyone can see from several recent locked threads, it simply escalates the whole mess.

No matter what decision is made by the mods concerning what should or shouldn't be done with a poster/thread/situation there will be probably half the readers who are unhappy about it. But I am forever grateful to Barry and the other admins of this site that they run a very tight ship.

If someone wants to be like "that other site" and post whatever with seemingly no restraints then be my guest. You'll be happier there and won't be missed here.

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